Men's Golf Headline

The
University of Florida men’s golf team finished 14th at the Southern
Highlands Collegiate Masters with a tournament score of 937 (292-326-319, +73).
The Gators carded a 319 (+31) on Sunday’s final round.

“We faced
a different kind of golf course and I just believe that we don’t have the
experience to understand how to play on a golf course this demanding from a
green standpoint,” said head coach Buddy Alexander. “We don’t seem to be
good when the wind is blowing, which identifies some things we need to work on
and we need to do it pretty quickly because we play again this weekend. The
good news coming from this weekend is that we don’t have much time to dwell on
how we played, we will get out and compete again quickly.”

Although
the squad did not finish as well as hoped, senior Tyson Alexander (Gainesville, Fla.) posted his best finish of the season, tying for second. Alexander
finished the tournament with a 54-hole score of 220 (68-80-72, +4). He
responded from a second round in which he shot eight-over to card an even-par
72 on Sunday’s final round. Alexander carded a birdie on his fourth hole, bogey
on his sixth and eighth and a birdie on his ninth to enter the turn even. He
went on to card nine-straight pars.

Tim
McKenney (Scottsdale, Ariz.) had the next best finish for the Orange and Blue, tying for 48th with
a 54-hole score of 237 (75-79-83, +21). McKenney shot his highest round of the
tournament on Sunday, carding an 11-over 83. After making a double bogey on his
third hole followed by a birdie on his fourth, he began to struggle, carding
three-straight bogeys, a double bogey and another three-consecutive bogeys. He
finished with three more bogeys and a birdie to finish at 11-over.

Phillip
Choi (Orlando, Fla.)
matched his second-round score with a 10-over 82 in the final round. The freshman
finished in a tie for 61st with a 240 (76-82-82, +24). Teammate Andres
Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia) also matched his score from Saturday with a
13-over 85 for a final score of 243 (73-85-85, +27). He finished tied for 67th.
Freshman Tyler McCumber (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) finished in 77th
place with a total tournament score of 249 (82-85-82, +33).

The Gators
face a short turn-around as they travel to Statesboro, Ga. on March 19-21 for
the Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational. Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com
or www.GatorZone.com.